*Instapundit thinks spending federal funds and law enforcement resources battling adult (i.e., not child) pornography is a waste of resources. I agree. Porn is a classic example of the sort of thing that, even if you are going to crack down on it, ought to be left to the local level; as the Supreme Court recognized decades ago, what counts as obscene in one community may be acceptable in another. And it's awfully difficult to argue that pornography has any truly national impact, except by making arguments under which any bad thing has a national impact.

*Unless I remember incorrectly, this represents the first indictment of a Bush Administration official. That's a marked difference from the record of prosecutions in the Clinton Administration (or the Reagan or Carter Administrations, for that matter). If the history of two-term presidencies is any indicator, this will not be the last.

*Youppi! is back, after a year spent living under an overpass in Montreal carrying a "Will Mascot For Food" sign (in French, of course). (via Kevin Cott).

*Now, Tom DeLay says, "There are programs all over the federal budget that are bloated or wasteful or inefficiently using the funds we provide them, and I'm very interested in identifying them." How long has DeLay been in Congress?

Some are arguing that it's time for divided government - that Democrats in Congress would at least produce some pork-killing gridlock. I mean to get to this point in more detail when it's time to discuss the McCain 2008 campaign, but while fighting pork is a good thing, the real battle is to change the structure of the budget process and rein in entitlements - neither of which would ever be helped even one little bit by electing more Democrats. But I'm not that optimistic that we're getting anywhere on that front under the GOP, either.

*This looks like a bad idea. So does this, if it means that partisan sniping has led the Bush White House to divert one of its best homeland security people to handle an investigation.

The one comment I can see here is the almost offhand one on the McCain campaign. As a senator, his chances of getting the nomination are slim, although his electiblility is greater. The last senator to become president was Kennedy, and that because his dad stole the Illinois vote. Before that I think it was Harding. Rarely do senators get elected.

Katrina (and we'll see what Rita does) may just hand the entire shebang over to Giuliani, who can run on the, "I don't panic and I always know what to do when it counts' ticket." He can get the nomination by really hitting the competence issue hard with the conservative right. He will get that vote, but probably never the religious right.